Russian software developer ElcomSoft has been cleared of charges that it illegally created a program to disable encryption on Adobe e-books.

The jury verdict, announced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, concludes the first criminal trial of a company accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal statute that protects copyrights on electronic content...

The verdict comes on its third day of deliberations. Jurors had asked to review several pieces of evidence, including a videotaped deposition of ElcomSoft programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, prior to reaching the decision.

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Jury Finds ElcomSoft Not Guilty

By Joanna Glasner

11:13 AM Dec. 17, 2002 PT

Russian software developer ElcomSoft has been cleared of charges that it illegally created a program to disable encryption on Adobe e-books.

The jury verdict, announced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, concludes the first criminal trial of a company accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal statute that protects copyrights on electronic content.

Moscow-based ElcomSoft had been charged with violating the law by creating and selling a program called the Adobe eBook Processor, which allowed users to foil copyright protections put in place by e-book publishers.

The verdict comes on its third day of deliberations. Jurors had asked to review several pieces of evidence, including a videotaped deposition of ElcomSoft programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, prior to reaching the decision.

The government had charged the firm with four counts of violating the DMCA and one count of conspiracy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Frewing maintained throughout the trial that ElcomSoft was aware it was violating the law by selling the Adobe eBook Processor.

But defense attorney Joe Burton maintained that ElcomSoft's behavior shows that the company was clearly not aware it was doing anything illegal when it began selling the e-book decrypting program in June 2001. Burton asked jurors why the company would have sold and even written press releases about a program it knew broke the law.